Top Ten Books From My Childhood and Teen Years That I’d Like To Revisit

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This list is really freaking hard for me, because as I’ve said before I didn’t read a lot as a kid. So I actually thought more about required reading as well that I’d like to revisit – which counts, I suppose. *cough* My excitement here is palpable.

1. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling: DUH? This was my childhood. And fair enough, I’ve reread it a ton of times, but not recently. The last time was probably 5-6 years ago. Must fix that this year.

2. The Water series by Kara Dalkey: I absolutely loved this series as a kid, which kind of gave me my obsessive hope for more awesome mermaid series. But was it as awesome as I remember? Wasn’t I just easily impressed because I didn’t read much?

3. The Shadow Children series by Margaret Peterson Haddix: I never finished this series, because it was still being released when I kind of grew out of it / stopped reading altogether? That makes me sad though. I really loved the first book. I wonder if it was really that good though.

I think you can see a trend here, right? Of all my required reading, the only ones that I actually really enjoyed were coincidentally (or not so coincidentally) dystopian! I dunno why… I guess I just loved thinking about the kernels of truth in those societies and was thrilled with thinking how they might happen. But would I still like them? Honestly, I remember almost nothing about these, just that I enjoyed them at the time.

8. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee: I’m probably one of the only people in the world who didn’t care for this book. I scarcely know of a more universally loved classic. But I think I just didn’t *get* it. I think it just went straight over my head. It’s worth revisiting – though I don’t think I’ll read the sequel coming out either way.

9. Animal Farm by George Orwell: Though I loved 1984, I just didn’t get Animal Farm. I mean, I was pretty bad with all literature, but this satire should have been easily impressive. I think maybe my history knowledge just wasn’t up to par when we had to read this.

10. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote: I actually really liked this one, but it’s been ages. I don’t remember much about the story. But I’ve been thinking about rereading it lately.

5 responses to “Top Ten Books From My Childhood and Teen Years That I’d Like To Revisit”

I read the first Among the Hidden book as an adult (early 20s) and really liked it. I bought the rest of them at a used bookstore, but haven’t read them yet. I’ve heard that the rest of the series is good, so I’ll give it a shot one of these days! I also didn’t get Animal Farm either — I remember people doing these super impressive presentations in English 10, but I didn’t even understand half of the book. I really liked To Kill a Mockingbird when I read it the same year, and I’m planning to re-read it this year to see if I love it as much as an adult as a did as a 16-year-old.

I’m steadily making my way through my HP reread as well, but it had been about three years since the last one before I started!

I still haven’t read Brave New World, but I really enjoyed 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 is still a favorite even today. Same for To Kill a Mockingbird; that one went over my head as a kid but when I read it again after college I fell in love with it!

I remember the Shadow Children series. I only read the first three, I think, because they were still being released. I remember thinking Luke was a pretty brave character.
I wasn’t that big a fan of To Kill a Mockingbird either. I can’t remember why though.
Thanks for sharing!